My HUGE announcement............................

..........I'M GOING TO BECOME A PATHOLOGIST, ROTFL!!!!

Okay, so maybe that's not such a HUGE announcement after all, but given that I'm spending a considerable amount of time reading slides and looking at Gleason scores, I'm feeling pretty certain that my path, pun intended, is getting clearer EVERY day.

Not that it was ever distorted, it's kinda hard sometimes to stay focused when you've got jerks AKA nasty people you work with at places, death Pharma , where you shouldn't be working, trying their best to keep you off your game. But then God blesses you in a HUGE way and you're reminded that if you dare to step out on faith, like relocating to a hot a$$ Midwestern state where you don't have a full-time gig, you'll be rewarded ten fold for being obedient. And that's my VERY convoluted way of saying that not only are my Pathology skills coming into play in my Bioinformatics gig, my main project is on prostate cancer, which excites me BEYOND belief!!!

So with that said, it's an understatement to say that my first week on my new gig was a blast and that I'm going to enjoy this ride until med school matriculation in 2015!

Brush the chip off your shoulders

So today is the first day of my internship/audition for a real gig, LOL!! Add I realize as I think about my last gig working in "death Pharma" that I may have just a bit of a chip on my shoulder for all the $hit I dealt with working there. So I'm praying REAL hard that I can keep that in check and make the most of an experience I've been waiting over 2.5 years to have.

Other things going on in my life right now is that my kid is working on what may end up being her first "boyfriend". And that's really great news because now maybe my Mom will stop asking me if she's a lesbian. Maybe it's me, but if a girl takes her time growing up, that should be celebrated on some level especially in the Black community. But it's a sentiment I've heard before from members of my family, if a person isn't into the opposite sex as much as others think is "normal" for their age, they're assumed to be gay. Now how dumb is THAT?!?!

So this guy is a 19 year old Engineering major she met at her Engineering internship this summer where my daughter was the ONLY female and one of only 2 black kids. He's also White, which I personally find hilarious as I think about the look her father would have on his face if he knew about this, ROTFL! Now me, in light of our multicultural background, I'm cool with the White boy. But there's just something about Black girls/women with White boys/men that seems to rub most Black men the wrong way. And that kinda tees me off since many of the ones with problems including her father, have dated White women. Of course, I DO take issue with the fact that this young man is technically an adult and my kid is just 16 about to be 17 so of course, I'm monitoring this situation VERY carefully. But then I remember that when I was turning 17, my boyfriend was a college freshman and though I'd dated him when we both were in high school, he was STILL an adult while I was a technically a kid.

Other news is that I've decided NOT to take the MCAT, I just didn't have much time to actively study given everything else I had going on this summer. So I'll definitely shoot for a Spring date as soon as the dust settles in my life.

I'll end this post with a song by my favorite rap artist which is most definitely appropriate as I begin the first day of my new career in Biomedical Informatics:

And 2 years after starting the journey into Biomedical Informatics.........................

............Path201X has FINALLY landed a strictly Biomedical informatics gig!!! YEAH!!!!!

It's only an internship, but it's a "foot in the door", and that's all I need, I'll kick my way in the rest of the way, ROTF!!!

And this is a big deal for a BUNCH of reasons, especially given the VERY contentious interview I had with the last and final co-owner of this company. Yeah, yet another contentious interview with a WOMAN (of course). I mean, this woman asked me question after question which I proceeded to knock out of the park (just like former pageant girls do)! And I felt like she just kept asking me questions in a rather futile attempt to get me to screw up an answer. For example, she asked me what I thought about the latest technologies to detect biological agents that can be used as weapons. And that would have been fine except in the particular CV she received, I didn't mention ANYTHING about my background in microbiology or biological agents, AT ALL!!! Now in her defense, I knew this company did some work in this area, but based on my prior interview and the description of the project I would be working on (a cancer project), I didn't brush up in this area which in retrospect, wasn't a good way to prepare for an interview. However, because I have a certificate in biological and chemical agents AND a minor in Microbiology, I really didn't need to. Still, I don't understand why some people feel the need to dig you a new anal orifice during interviews, but the good news for me is that this woman is in Cali and I'll rarely have to work with her. At least that's what it seems for now, but we all know how things can change.

The flip side of this situation is that the men I interview with seemed very impressed with me and my interview responses, almost as if they wanted to see if I could/would stand up to this woman. In fact, the CFO specifically said that he liked that I have a "strong personality" and could see me working in other areas of the company, like sales. No ain't it funny how people, especially men and women, see things differently?

The only downside to this deal is that I'm pretty sure I underbid myself BIG TIME when it comes to salary and that's actually okay because Interns typically aren't paid much. :( But if we mutually decide to turn this internship into a full-time gig 6 weeks from now, trust me, they'll have to come correct as in 6 figures correct, or else I'll walk away without a second thought. One thing I learn working in "death Pharma" is that if you undermine yourself on the front end, you'll NEVER gain the respect of the company down the road. And that's a lesson I won't EVER have to learn again!

I'm coming out!

Ummm..... NO, I'm NOT suddenly declaring myself homosexual and while I don't agree with that lifestyle, I wouldn't dare judge anyone else for having it.

As the image indicates, that's the state of HOT A$$ TEXAS where I now call home and where I'm residing in a nameless major city. And I decided to "put it out there" so to speak, because I finally felt ready. I also decided that I don't need to concern myself with the malevolent intentions of people who stalk me on my blog and who may decide to get their MD parent to call a classmate on the adcom of a Texas school to "rat out" my outspokenness on MY blog. Nah, I'm gonna life God/Karma deal with those folks and keep steppin' into my VERY bright future!!!

For my "coming out" party, I decided to use the map of Texas which indicates where the incidence of breast cancer are concentrated because try as I might, I just can't seem to get away from being interested in anything but cancer. Or pathology for that matter. It's just so damn depressing to think about sometimes (cancer, NOT pathology), but the mechanisms of it just fascinate the hell outta' me!

Other news is that it's official, I'm a STEM business owner, the idea of which still feels like a dream (or nightmare), depending on which day you ask me about it. Today it's more nightmare than dream because I'm soooooooooooooooo far outside my comfort zone, I feel like another person. But it's not a surprise to anyone that knows me well that I have an education based business. And I just LOVE the different people/cultures I get to come in contact on a regular basis!

As for a full-time gig, I thought I was going to hear about my Tuesday interview yesterday, but alas, NADA!!! And that's gotta' be cool because I'll probably be too busy with my PhD courses and business anyway. It just would have been so nice to get that Biomedical Informatics experience on the job, but oh well, I'm sure as hell not complaining because business is damn good in HOT A$$ TEXAS, ROTFL!!!

I've also been thinking about the language in my last post and after I gave it some thought, it made me think about the first juror who spoke out after the Zimmerman verdict, and her comments about the young lady Travon Martin was talking to when he was brutally killed by a chicken $hit coward. The juror VERY harshly judged Rachel Jeantel, Travon's friend for the way she spoke/her mannerisms and I couldn't help but think about the young women I spoke about in my last post and how their DOCTORS likely perceive them when they seek out health care services. And I imagined that because of the cultural disconnect between most Doctors and minority patients, the "culture/behavior" of minority patients very likely affects the type of care they get. Just like Rachel's "behavior" affected that juror's perception of her truthfulness and thus the outcome of the trial.

Finally, in celebration of me revealing where I'll spend what will likely be the rest of my life, here's a video by Ms. Ross which says it MUCH better than I EVER could: